23 June 2009

Clarence Thomas: Blacks No Longer Need the Voting Rights Act

A key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act survives a constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court and only Justice Clarence Thomas—the court's lone black justice—found the provision unconstitutional.

The 8-1 decision in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder (pdf) declined to overturn Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that requires federal approval for any changes in election laws or redistricting decisions in nine states, mostly in the South.

The Washington Post notes during oral arguments, the court's conservative majority "was openly critical of the requirements" but the Court avoided the constitutional issue. "Whether conditions continue to justify such legislation is a difficult constitutional question we do not answer today," Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the Court.

In his dissent, Thomas went further and "seemed to argue" the Voting Rights Act is no longer necessary "because the explicit racial segregation of the Jim Crow era is gone", notes The Daily Voice.

''The violence, intimidation and subterfuge that led Congress to pass Section 5 and this court to uphold it no longer remains,'' Thomas wrote. He admitted that in 1965, "Congress had every reason to conclude that States with a history of disenfranchising voters based on race would continue to do all they could to evade the constitutional ban on voting discrimination." But, Thomas added, "The extensive pattern of discrimination that led the Court to previously uphold Section 5 . . . no longer exists...And the days of 'grandfather clauses, property qualifications, 'good character' tests, and the requirement that registrants 'understand' or 'interpret' certain matter,' are gone."

When there was talk about conversation of the Voting Rights Act, I KNEW THAT CLARENCE "ALL WHITE FOLKS IS GOOD" THOMAS would somehow suggest that it was no longer necessary.

I dream of the world that Chief Justice Thomas lives in, where off-duty police officers don't get killed by their own co-worker; where black men aren't still thrown in from of the bus as the "HE DID IT" scapegoat for crazy white women (and men) who don't want to take responsibility for their actions and where there isn't actually a separate police task force for hip-hop artists, who, while they make some stupid choices, shouldn't be the specialized focus of any legal system.

Oh Clarence, poor Clarence, what must people say about you when you leave the room?

You see - folks just don’t understand the pervasiveness of internalized racism. It’s doesn’t matter what college you went to or one’s academic pedigree. Quite frankly, we won’t understand until we actually challenge our perception and conception of Christianity and thought. It’s just another version of internalized racism.

Dear Michael Jackson,
would you PLEASE send Clarence Thomas to your dermatologist so he can bleach his ass out of our race once and for all? In return, we will promise to buy the zillionth repackaging of your greatest hits.